


I'm Never Gonna Let Go Of You

by MissConstance



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Awkward Romance, Cute, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Love, They like each other a lot, but they're too afraid to face it, don't worry there's romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-21
Updated: 2018-03-21
Packaged: 2019-04-06 05:57:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14050419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissConstance/pseuds/MissConstance
Summary: After a fight with her mother, Cheryl finds comfort in Toni's arms.





	I'm Never Gonna Let Go Of You

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little something I wrote because I love Cheryl and Toni so much and I'm so happy they're (almost) together!   
> Enjoy :)

As usual, when Cheryl came home after school, she fought with her mother. This time, she wasn’t even looking for it but apparently, everything she says or does make her mother mad. Usually, she could bear it.   
But not today. 

It was the perfect way to end a shitty day. It had been exhausting, between going to classes, to training and avoiding most of the people at school… She didn’t even have time to see Toni. She couldn’t believe how much she’d missed her. She wanted to be with her all the time, even though they started to hang out together only a week ago. But now, Cheryl Blossom, who didn’t need anybody, desperately wanted to be with someone. And a special someone. A beautiful girl named Toni Topaz.   
But no. As always, she was stuck with her mother. And her never-ending fights. 

However, that time, the fight took a turn Cheryl couldn’t bear. Her mother started insulting Toni (that wasn’t completely unusual), but it was harsher than before, including Cheryl in her abuse, questioning the nature of their relationship, saying how Toni was a freak and that she shouldn’t spend time with her.   
And then, it got worse.   
Her mother was known to use her weak points against her, but Cheryl didn’t think she would go this far. But apparently, being related to Penelope Blossom didn’t matter to her in any way. Or maybe it was her in particular. She would never know. But she knew that what her mother said was too much for her to bear it. She was strong. She usually held her head high and answered back. But not right now, not after what she said. She couldn’t take it. 

Cheryl took her bag and got out of the house, slamming the door and running as far away as possible. She was not going to stay a minute longer in this hell. 

Without realizing it, she ended up at Toni’s. She’d only been once at her place, but her feet seem to have known where to go. Or, most likely her heart.   
She desperately wanted to see her, but she didn’t how she would explain herself. But where would she go? She had no one else.   
Cheryl stood frozen in the doorway for several minutes, weighing her options, until she finally gathered all her courage and knocked on the door. 

Toni opened the door a few seconds later, wearing her usual black crop top and her wine-colored jeans. Her hair was down.  
“Cheryl! What are you doing here?” Toni greeted her, surprised, but still very pleased to see her.   
The red-haired couldn’t look her in the eyes. She felt ashamed. Running away like a coward, and showing up at her…friend’s? She didn’t even know what she was for her. She only knew that she was the only person who had stuck with her despite everything, who had comforted her, who had seen she wasn’t okay and didn’t give up on her. She stood by her. And it meant everything for her. That’s why she’s here. 

When Cheryl didn’t answer, Toni started to worry. It wasn’t very like her to show herself at her door, unannounced and looking distressed. That could only mean that something bad happened.   
She touched her shoulder, forcing Cheryl to look at her.   
“Hey, are you okay?”   
Why lie? She was the one who came here.   
She shook her head. “No, not really…”  
Toni immediately took her hand and led her inside. “Then let’s talk about it with a good cup of tea and a warm blanket.” She smiled comfortingly at her.   
Cheryl couldn’t help but smile back. 

\---

Cheryl and Toni were sitting comfortably on the sofa, a blanket around them and two empty cups at their feet. Cheryl wasn’t still sure about what they meant to each other and so, she tried to maintain some kind of distance between her and Toni. Even though, it wasn’t really working as the other girl didn’t mind leaning in a few times, getting closer to what Cheryl was used to. But she didn’t mind. Far from it, on the contrary.   
Being so close to each other felt like heaven. She could do that all night long. 

“So,” Toni started, “are you going to telling me what happened?” She looked concerned.   
She wanted Cheryl to feel safe with her; she wanted her to be able to open up with her, even if she wasn’t used to it at all.   
“Cheryl lowered her eyes. “It’s nothing really… I overreacted.”   
“Is it your mother?”  
Cheryl wasn’t still looking at her. But she shook her head positively.   
“What did she say? Did she hurt you?”   
Cheryl took a deep breath. “She said bad things, about you…and me…”  
Toni took her hand and squeezed it to appease her. It gave her some courage.   
“She also said that… that she would have been better without me…”

Toni gasped.   
Cheryl still wasn’t looking at her.   
“Cheryl, I’m so sorry…”  
She took her face in her hands. “Cheryl, look at me.” The red-haired girl looked up and me Toni’s gaze. Her eyes were full of tears. “She shouldn’t have said that. No one should ever say that. She is a monster. And you are the most beautiful, smart, bold girl I’ve ever met. You are worth so much more than her and you should never, never, feel like you don’t deserve anything, okay?”

Cheryl didn’t know how to react to that. This was the nicest thing anybody ever told her. She looked at Toni as if she wasn’t real, as if she couldn’t truly exist.   
But Toni made her existence pretty clear by putting both of her hands on Cheryl’s arms.   
“You, Cheryl Blossom, are worth everything. You hear me?”   
Toni looked at her with such care, such concern, that Cheryl couldn’t help but let a few tears roll down her cheeks. No one ever looked at her that way. No one ever said that to her. No one ever showed her so much love. 

Toni touched her face and wiped away her tears.   
“No one ever told me that,” Cheryl said with a shaky voice.   
“Well, that’s good that I am.” Toni replied, smiling at her.   
“Do you truly mean everything you said?”   
“Every word.”   
Cheryl looked at her; her eyes still red. “Why?”  
Toni let out a breath and cradled Cheryl’s face with her hand.   
“I don’t need a reason to tell you that. You are everything I said you are. And… I really like you.”   
Cheryl held out her breath and stared at her with wide eyes.   
“You really like me?”   
“Of course, I do.” Toni told her with a smile. “And if I’m not wrong, you like me too.”   
Cheryl giggled at that, playing nervously with her hair.   
“Maybe.”   
“Yeah?”  
“Yeah.”   
Toni shrugged and smiled. “I can live with that.”   
Cheryl was now smiling. And Toni was so glad for that. She leaned in to hug her and Cheryl didn’t resist it. She welcomed the other girl’s contact eagerly.   
Being in each other’s arms felt so good. And safe.   
She could stay there for hours. That was a good thing that Toni didn’t plan to go anywhere.

\---

Later that night, Cheryl and Toni were laying on her bed, under the covers, close to each other, telling embarrassing stories from their childhood and sharing secrets. Cheryl felt comfortable in Toni’s presence. She felt like she could tell her anything, she could count on her, she could trust her. She hadn’t had someone like that for years. She had missed it.   
It was so good to be able to be yourself with someone you liked. And who liked you back.   
‘Toni likes me,’ Cheryl thought, blushed slightly. She was glad that the room was dark enough so that the other girl wouldn’t see.   
‘She really likes me.’ She repeated, smiling to herself.  
She wouldn’t be able to think of anything else for the next few days. Weeks even. 

“Cheryl?”   
Toni’s voice brought her back to reality.   
She turned around to face her. They were so close, their faces almost touching.   
“Yes?”   
Toni looked at her carefully. She didn’t want to push her, but she felt like she needed to know some things to understand her. Why she was so alone, so miserable, so angry? She wanted to get to be her friend, and way more than that. But she knew that first; Cheryl needed to let her be a part of her life.   
And now seemed like the perfect time. The red-haired girl was relaxed and, more importantly, she trusted her. She was glad for it; she wanted to let her know that she could always count on her. She was going to show it to her.   
“What happened with Veronica and the others?”

Cheryl’s breath caught in her throat when Toni asked that question. What did she want to know? She was at school with her; she knew what was happening.   
“What do you mean?”  
“I feel like there is something that happened with them that drove you apart.”  
“We were never friends. Well, I never was friend with them.”   
“Then what is it?”   
Toni was looking at her with such concern that Cheryl couldn’t feel like lying to her. She was going to tell her the truth, and maybe, she wouldn’t run away and forsake her, like everyone around her did. 

So she closed her eyes and told her.   
“I tried to kill myself a year ago.”   
Cheryl heard Toni gasped but she didn’t stop.   
“I was at the lake and I was ready to join Jason. I had nothing to hold on to, the only person who ever cared about me was gone. I had just learned that my father killed Jason; then he killed himself and, my mother, who I thought still cared about me, told me to join him. I tried to reach out to the others, Veronica especially, because she was new at school and I thought we could’ve gotten along, I was very wrong obviously. But that didn’t matter because no one noticed me; no one paid attention to me. No one cared. Not enough anyway.”   
Cheryl had to stop as her voice was trembling. She felt Toni taking her hand. She squeezed it as if her life was depending on it.   
“So, one day, I just had enough. I couldn’t go on like that. I went to the lake and texted Veronica. And, when I fell into the lake, they were there. Veronica, Betty, Archie and Jughead. They got me out. They took me home.”  
“But that was all. That night, they left for a party and I didn’t see them until the next morning. We never talked about it. They never mentioned it. They just went back to treating me as if I was some kind of evil monster walking among them.”   
“I’m grateful that they saved my life. I wouldn’t be here, with you, if they hadn’t. But helping me and then leaving me like that… I just don’t understand… But maybe they’re right… maybe I’m not a good person, maybe I don’t deserve it…”

Cheryl felt Toni took her face in her hands abruptly, making her eyes fly open.   
“Don’t ever say that.” She was dead serious.   
“You are important and you matter, Cheryl.”   
“I am so sorry that that happened to you, but you need to understand that it’s not your fault. They shouldn’t have left you like that. They shouldn’t have abandoned you like that. What you live through was horrible and traumatic. And yes, they saved your life, but that doesn’t make them more worthy than you. And, for all I know, you’re worth ten of them.”   
Listening to her, Cheryl could feel tears form in her eyes (for the millionth time of the night). She couldn’t believe Toni was still here with her; defending her even.   
“You are sensational, Cheryl, and I am so glad that I get to be a part of your life.”   
At that, Cheryl did the only thing that came to her mind.   
She grabbed Toni’s face and kissed her.   
She didn’t know what she expected to happen, but when she felt Toni respond against her lips, she never felt more relieved in her entire life.   
When they finally broke apart, they were breathless, and smiling.   
“So… I take it that you like me too?” Toni asked her, playfully.   
Cheryl laughed. “Oh shut up.” And she kissed her again.


End file.
